Animal Kingdom

Typhoon Lagoon

Blizzard Beach

Well hopefully this will give you some ideas if you only have one day to spend at Disney : )

My sister and I (early 30s) and our parents planned to go on a Disney cruise for over a year. Well actually first my sister and I planned to go after we had such a great time on the Magic last January and our parents decided to go along with us on the Fantasy.

My mom surprised us by buying 4 one-day park hoppers at a charity auction. Along with the tickets was a junior suite at the Hilton at Downtown Disney. We added a second room though since we are 4 adults and even a junior suite would be too close for comfort for us : )

So we had one day at Disney before our Disney Cruise which embarked on Saturday May 19.

Side note - I do prefer staying on property. But the price was right on this one. And since this was a bonus day at Disney before our cruise I didnt mind so much.

Also to set the stage for this report  we go to Disney a lot. We are from Florida so my parents have been going since the park opened and my sister and I have been going since we were babies.

So there was no need to cram everything in on this one day at Disney but rather to hit our highlights while seeing new things. That is my one goal for each trip  to see and experience something new (at least to me) each time I go to Disney and I always do!

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I absolutely love this park. The theming is amazing and attention to detail is fantastic.

We like to get to parks at rope drop so it was an early morning for us since we were staying the night before at a Hampton Inn in Davenport FL and the home of the McDonald's my parents would go to when they were students at Florida Southern College. So we can't help but tease them about "their" McDonald's.

We left the Hampton Inn by 7:00 and arrived at the Hilton Downtown Disney Hotel by 7:30 AM. Luckily my dad watched the local news and was able to avoid I-4 since it was closed because of a major accident. He earned MVP for that one! We checked in to the Hilton and they actually had one of our rooms available so we put all 15 pieces of luggage in the room and headed to Animal Kingdom.

They predicted rain so we packed our rain jackets in our day pack which meant that it didn't rain until the evening when we were already back at our hotel.

Anyway, we arrived at Animal Kingdom by 8:00AM and parked in the lot. Hilton has a shuttle but it only runs every 30 minutes and we decided to drive and park instead. My sister asked if we each had our tickets and then handed us our hold Florida Passes from 1992! She had been organizing closets and came across them. My dad's picture with his mustache looked like it should have read " don't let this man in" : )

We were first at the turnstiles and waited till they opened at 8:45. There was no opening celebration which I really missed. When we were through the turnstiles we followed the cast members left toward Africa where we waited at the rope drop. The cast members tried to entertain us with "if you are happy and you know it..." My dad responded by singing "if you want to make us happy - let us in"

At 9:00 the rope dropped and we were off to Kilimanjaro Safari. The driver was one of the best we have had. Very knowledgeable, but I didn’t catch his name. They are changing the ending poaching story line and will soon create a zebra habitat. Right now they just talk about what their plans are for the area but there is nothing to see yet.

9:30 and my mom wanted to see Festival of the Lion King so we split up just before the show. My Dad, Sister and I went to Expedition Everest for fastpasses while my mom went to the show to wait for us. We got fastpasses but then noticed the standby was only 5 minutes. We had just enough time to ride it standby. This was my first time through the standby line and I really enjoyed the displays! Everest was as much fun as ever  though I miss the moving Yeti.

We had just a few minutes to get to the Festival of the Lion King and made it just in time. It wasnt crowded so my mom had no problem saving seats for us. I know you are not supposed to but the theatre was less than half full so it really wasnt an issue. This show is really fun and I am so glad my mom wanted to go because we all really enjoyed it.

At 11 we headed to Yak and Yeti for our ADR. We have ADR at Le Cellier at 3pm so this was strictly to tie us over for a bit and to see the décor which I have read is really nice to see. We had a fantastic server who steered us well with our choices. We also had a great table on the second floor next to the window.

We realized our fastpasses would expire before we were done so my dad went outside to give them away. I am really not a fan of the new enforcement system and am also not to keen on what we know of the RFID system they are testing.

After a light lunch, we went to Dinoland to play a couple of games. These games are a lot of fun. They are like carnival games without being at a carnival. Actually the entire area of Dinoland is really a fun theme.

It was soon time to head out to EPCOT. We saw this little guy in a small habitat as we were leaving. So cute!

I'm glad that you chose AK for your morning park- that's the same decision we would have made!

It looks like you had an extremely similar safari to the one that we had on June 4th (I'm not sure when you were there)- the animals were so close! Thats great, and you have some awesome photos- unfortunately my camera ran out of memory during the safari, so I couldn't get some of the great shots that you have, but now I can still relive the memories through yours!

I'm glad that you chose AK for your morning park- that's the same decision we would have made!

It looks like you had an extremely similar safari to the one that we had on June 4th (I'm not sure when you were there)- the animals were so close! Thats great, and you have some awesome photos- unfortunately my camera ran out of memory during the safari, so I couldn't get some of the great shots that you have, but now I can still relive the memories through yours!

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Thanks for posting! Animal kingdom is just fantastic and I agree it is especially great in the morning. I actually haven't ever stayed at Animal kingdom much past 2 pm - definitely have to do that one of these days!

I'm really enjoying reading about all that you are doing in one day and the pictures are great! I hope you are going to tell us what your new experiences are for this trip.

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Great! So glad you are following along.

My new experience at Animal Kingdom this trip was Yak and Yeti restaurant. I really enjoyed it!. The attention to detail is amazing on the inside and the food is very good. I recommend it and do plan to go again.

In addition to Yak and Yeti I saw new animals I have not seen before. Like the last picture I took on the way out. No idea the name of the animal but it was such a surprise to see it hiding under a bush in its habitat right along the path.

One thing that is still on my list for Animal Kingdom is the afternoon parade. All these times I've gone to Animal Kingdom I've never stayed that late so it is still on my list to do.

I'll have more new to me experiences for you in the afternoon - stay tuned

I used a five year old Olympus point and shoot that died on the cruise. But for the safari I set my camera to the setting for action or sports so I can take photos faster. I just click away and hope something is in focus! I take a lot more photos than what I keep!

We drove and parked at EPCOT. Much faster than the shuttles! I had never been to the Flower and Garden Show and was thrilled to catch the last weekend. Definitely one of the best times to go!

We rode Spaceship Earth at my request. There is never a line and I always like it. Even though there is hardly a line there was still a woman who went past us to try to catch up with her family. She didnt catch up with them and had to ride by herself anyway. It just doesnt work to hold places in line at rides especially one as fast moving as Spaceship Earth. Best just to wait for everyone before getting in line.

Our next stop was Captain EO. This originally debuted in 1986, but none of us remembered seeing it before. My sister does remember teasing my cousin for waiting hours to see something and we all figured it must have been Captain EO. It is a good show and I am glad I saw it but I hope they are working on a new 4-D film to go in that space. I also like Honey I Shrunk the Audience in that space but they need something new. I guess it wouldn't be in partnership with Kodak this time around though - so sad.

Le Cellier was running 20 minutes behind just like Yak and Yeti. Another reason I dont think the new fastpass system with work well if you cant rely on your ADRs to be on time. Despite the delay we had a fantastic meal. My dad, mom and sister each had the wine flights and I had the specialty Red Maple non-alcohol frozen drink since I dont drink much. I also had the cheese soup which is recommended but I found it too spicy. Next time I will get the Prince Edward Mussels - I swiped a couple from my dad and they were excellent. The Filet Mignon was also fantastic! We also all shared the moose mousse  very yummy!

Wine Flight

Filet - I ordered it medium rare and it was cooked perfectly so often in restaurants they won't serve it on the rare side.

The strip

moose mousse

Outside the restaurant is scooter parking for the accessible entrance to O Canada 360. I think we were all eyeing those with envy after such a heavy meal!

I really enjoyed all of the topiaries. So much fun! I think the Flower and Garden festival is now my favorite time to visit Epcot.

Something else new to me - I've never noticed the theming off the lake in front of the countries before. We also saw canoes in front of Africa. My sister is actually the one to spot this. Again, love the attention to detail at Disney!

My sister and I loved watching the Monkees when we were kids. We are too young for the frist running of the show but MTV showed reruns of this show when we were kids. So this was as much for my dad as it was for us

We got to the American Pavilon in time to snag great seats for the first showing of the Monkees Micky Dolenz concert.

It was really special with a moving tribute to Davy Jones. I think others discovered how great the concert was because afterwards the line for the next showing was incredibly long. A man pushing a woman in a wheel chair nearly ran my sister down getting in line for the next show. The irony was we werent even getting in line since we just came from the concert. My sister had some bad bruises as a result.

We continued on to Norway. We always have to stop by Norway since my great grandmother is from there and we are still in contact with our relatives there. We planned to ride Maelstrom but got distracted in the store buying Moods of Norway shirts. The line was too long by the time we left. The Moods of Norway, Dale Sweaters, and Helly Hanson gear are actually cheaper at EPCOT than in Norway, especially with the discount for the Disney Visa card. So my mom bought a shirt to give one of our cousins when she goes to Norway later this summer.